RonanAndMe – Story
We first met on a surf trip to the Canary Islands organized by one of our mates Dustin Bauer. We where on a boat, island hopping chasing some waves and pretty hungover from the night before.
After a few days surfing, Ronan asked me about snowboarding and I figured out that he had never been on a board on a snow capped mountain, so I invited him right away.
When he came to Leogang/Austria in the winter, he did a wonderful job at his first attempts down the slopes. After a long day on the mountain we ended up in my apartment where he saw a bunch of guitars and he asked me if I was playing. So we started jamming and it felt magic. A new idea was born right away and we combined our surf and snowboard trips with music in our minds.
After a couple of trips to Ireland and with Ronan visiting me in Austria, we wrote a few songs… Now, here we are
Ronan Oertzen McGettigan
Surf & Life
Ronan has been surfing since the summer 2003. After only six months he entered his first competition and ended up 2nd at the Quiksilver King of the Groms. His talent and fast progress brought him into the Irish National Surfing Team after only three years, competing in Portugal, Norway, France, Spain and Costa Rica. In 2008 he achieved a top 10 result at the European Junior Surfing Championships and got Irish National Champion in 2012.
Chasing the best waves brought the Bundoran resident to amazing places all around the world. He trained in Australia´s High Performance Surf Centre, spent a bunch of time on the North Shore of Oahu and joined soulsurfing trips for surf magazines to Indonesia and Morocco.
But in the end of the day his heart always returned back home to Bundoran / Ireland where he can find the best variety of world class waves and a lot of inspiration for his musical ambitions.
Music History
Ronan started playing the typical school instruments piano and trumpet at primary school in Belfast. With musical influence at home he decided one day to pick up his mums guitar, with not much idea after much perseverance he fell in love. From strumming tuneless songs, he soon realised that he preferred writing his own texts and music. After meeting Hans-Joerg by chance, he soon realised that their passion of surf
Me
Snowboard & Life
I grew up in the middle of the Austrian Alps and I pretty early fell in love with winter and snowboarding. I started competing in the end of he 90s and won a couple of national championships. Winning the European Cup and being part of the Austrian Olympic Team in Torino in 2006 had been highlights, as well as a couple of X Games invitations and the 7th place at the Snowboard World Championships 2009 in Korea.
My heart beats for freeriding – I had a couple of first descents down in the Andes in South America and chased sick lines in Cougach Alaska with a crazy crew around 7 times X Games Winner Nate Holland – whom Ronan and Me dedicated one of the songs.
After travelling the world for ten years as a professional snowboarder, I’m glad I found my calm anchor back home in beautiful Leogang. Accompanied by my wife and my little son I consider myself one very lucky guy to being able to still enjoy the best tree runs on this planet from time to time at my home venue.
Music History
I first started with an instrument called Ziehharmonika – a very traditional Austrian instrument – and I’m still playing it in a band called Bergisel Sextett. I started playing the guitar at the age of 24 after losing a bet to one of my mentors Klaus. With him and Christian I’m still jamming now and then back in Austria.